GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE, US, 2021 (Comedy thriller). Starring Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Joanna Bobin, Chloe Coleman, Freya Allan, Ed Birch, Paul Giamatti, Ralph Ineson, Angela Bassett, Michael Smiley. Directed by Navot Papushado. 114 minutes. Rated MA (Strong action violence).
Now that’s a title! Or, it might have been called Female Assassins like a Diner that Serves Double Scoop Milkshakes.
In fact, we visit the diner several times, first of all with Samantha, Sam (a tough leading lady, Gillan) and, as she sits, we see her 15 years earlier, with her mother, Starlet, similarly employed (Game of Throne’s Headey) – and her mother going off, absent for 15 years, entrusting her daughter to a company boss, Nathan (Giamatti). As it turns out, Nathan is not particularly happy with Sam, she exceeded her task and, instead of eliminating one, she eliminated the whole group, including the rival boss, McAlester’s (Inesen) only son.
Clearly, vengeance is going to be to the fore. And eluding vengeance will be more than a task ahead.
With its cleverly flip dialogue, with its stylised sets (gold-tinted), the diner, an immense library, a bowling alley and mall, this is not a story to be taken literally. Part of the enjoyment is exactly that it is all highly stylised, tongue-in-cheek. The word that often accompanies a review of this kind of film is, and here it is here, Tarantino-esque! I think Quentin would enjoy this one.
Nathan has an issue. An employee has stolen a lot of money and Sam has to get it back. But, it turns out that the man stole the money because some comic book thugs (four of them wearing masks from popular past horror films including Dracula and Frankenstein) have abducted the man’s daughter and are holding her to ransom. It looks as though Sam is not reliable, shoot first and ask questions afterwards. However, she has a heart, gets the wounded man to hospital, takes care of his daughter, Emily (Coleman) who endears herself to Sam and to the audience.
Nathan is not happy and Sam has some comic battles in the hospital with three nincompoops that he sends and who get high on laughing gas and so go to the final shootout, laughing uncontrollably. Nathan seems to the head of a large corporation, all-male executives at the meetings, all with the presumption that this world can function only with male control.
But, and here is quite a bonus for older audiences, Sam’s mother had three associates in the past who staff the enormous library – which is, in fact, a cover for a weapons bureau (with many of the guns concealed in the self-help section). And so, it is a pleasure to see Gugino, Yeoh and Bassett in action against the thugs. And, thank goodness, after an hour Headey turns up again and joins her daughter in battle.
Hard to find vocabulary now to comment on the film’s perspective. Feminist used to be the word, perhaps still is (and this despite the fact that the screenplay was written and directed by a male). There is an effectively written misogynistic speech from McAlester (when we go for the final confrontation back to the diner). McAlester solemnly tells Sam that he’d had three daughters, could not understand them in the least, was irritated by their giggling manner, then very happy to have a son whom he could bond with and with whom he could understand!
And, there are some gender equality issues that Nathan learns and has to live with.
There is a happy ending, of course, Emily, despite her assertions that she is 8 ¾, is obviously going to be the next generation of these female assassins. But not before the shootout – and a striking tracking shot along the length of the diner, the assassins in for action, wreaking vengeance and justice on the thugs. It’s that kind of film.
Studiocanal
Released 15 July